By Nick Schultz, Captain and Chief Reporter 2010
The Nomads went into our preliminary final against the Tamworth Roos on the weekend as the underdogs but pushed the Roos all the way, going down by just 12 points.

Confidence was high after our win over the Swans in the semi and there was a great feeling around the club. We attacked the ball hard in the first quarter under gloomy skies. The Roos got the first couple of goals, but we had tightened up by quarter time and clawed a couple of goals back, including a Jonathan Frost set-shot special from the boundary 45 m out.

Heavy rain set in at quarter time, and did not stop. The game turned into a real arm wrestle that we seemed to be winning. The only avenue to clean possession was to get the ball from the bottom of the pack and fight your way out. Our best proponent of this style of footy, Hamish Pearce, was magnificent in the hard contest, and was well supported all over the field by committed Nomads. We suffered a blow when Weston Whitby was forced from the field with a knee injury, but stuck to our game plan. We kept the Roos to just a single goal over the second and third quarters. When Whitby returned to the field, spun out of a pack and goaled just before three quarter time, we were six points up in a low scoring match with only one quarter of footy between us and spot in the grand final.

Not much changed in the last – the rain pelted, the contest stayed fierce, and clean possession was hard to come by. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t force the ball past our half forward line, and the Roos managed to get in front. The margin stayed at less than a goal for much of the quarter, but the goal we needed eluded us. The Roos gave themselves a two-goal buffer late in the game, and time ran out for us.

There were mixed emotions after the game. We entered the finals series as the least favourite to make the grand final, and came painstakingly close to pulling it off. Coach Brendan Meehan thanked us for our efforts, and led us from the ground with the two 50 gamers, Jonathan Frost and Kenneth Clayton, to warm applause from the Nomads fans. The loss hurt, but there was no doubt we’d given it all.

Best on ground for the Nomads was undoubtedly Hamish Pearce, who capped off an amazing season with a brutal performance in the middle. Weston Whitby was heroic in his attempts to get us over the line on one leg. Further top efforts are not hard to recall, but too numerous to list, as the whole side was desperate all day. Instead, I’ll reserve this space for the amazing performances we got from some guys playing in their first ever final – Gavin Nelson, Tom Walsh and Calla Teseling. These guys gave a glimpse of just what we may be capable of in the coming years if we can keep our side together.

Our season overall can only be seen as a success for the club. The Nomads have always had to contend with a high turnover of players, and this year more than most we had a very young and inexperienced side. The football that Brendan had us playing by finals time was a testament to the effort he had put into the side all year. Our finals campaign was a great experience for the side, and the Nomads will be back next year looking to build on this year’s efforts.

Round PF 2010

This entry was posted on Monday, September 6th, 2010 at 2:38 pm and is filed under Match report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.